The Dolomites

EXPEDITION TO THE CENTRAL-EAST PART, MARMOLADA

EXPEDITION TO THE CENTRAL-EAST PART, MARMOLADA

We just went with Leszek Cichy, his son Piotr and Kasia Pisera, my later wife, to climb the mountains. It was a good workout and preparation before any future possible escapades.

We chose the central-east part of the Dolomites, the regions of Cortina d’Ampezzo. Cortina is a nice town situated at 1224 m ASL in the very centre of the mountains. Because of its location it is described as the Queen of Italian Dolomites. This place is known to every lover of skiing, climbing and sport – the winter Olimpic games took place here in 1956. The town is surrounded by magnificent three thousands: Tofana di Mezzo (3241 m), Tofana di Dentro (3238 m) and Tofana di Rozes (3225 m).

The regions of Cortina are a paradise for climbers. There are several hundred of climbing routes of different level of difficulty. Leszek, who knows the Dolomites well chose the routes we could climb. These were always exceptional routes, of high difficulty level – the longest, the most difficult ones, demanding huge effort. We had climbing equipment with us and we practiced climbing on the rock ridges, overhangs, security techniques.

It turned out that Kasia didn’t have any fear of heights and that she has been created just for climbing rock walls. I was jealously watching her ease of climbing over any difficulties. I had to work a little in order to break my fear of heights.

These were intensive two weeks during which we made a good number of kilometers. We were spending time in the mountains, from the morning until late evening. Every night we came back to our tents at the camp and in the morning we went to the mountains again. Basically, we lived only with climbing at that time. It was a pleasant time, and everyday effort was giving us much satisfaction.